| Psalm 139 - 23 May 2010
Andrew Lim
* Jeremiah 23:24 God declares, "Do I not fill heaven and earth?"
* God is omnipresent / even the abode of the dead / Revelation 14:10
No atomic particle is so tiny that God is not fully present to it
No universe is so galactic that God cannot circumscribe it
Look at the first four verses of the psalm
“O LORD / you have searched me / and you know me
You know when I sit and when I rise / you perceive my thoughts from afar
You discern my going out and my lying down
you are familiar with all my ways
Before a word is on my tongue / you know it completely / O LORD
You hem me in / behind and before / you have laid your hand upon me
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me / too lofty for me to attain”
God peers right into your soul / God sees everything there
He has exhaustive intimate knowledge of your heart
All of us / without exception / have “soul secrets”
- some knowledge we know about ourselves
that we keep hidden from others / even from the one
whose breath you listen to as you drop off to sleep
- the one closest to you
But as Charles Spurgeon says
“The Lord knows us thoroughly as if He had examined us minutely
and had pried into the most secret corners of our being”
Verse 2 says / He knows “my sitting down and my rising up”
“You know when I sit down” / God knows your passive life
“You know when I rise” / God knows my active life
God knows all your thoughts and actions
- things your hands have touched / stuff your mind harbours
- places your feet navigate you to
Even our hidden unspoken attitudes and motives are known by God
That’s the meaning of the line “You understand my thoughts afar off”
And God know each word I will speak even before I speak it
verse 4 / “Even before a word is on my tongue / You know it altogether
- meaning you know it exhaustively and completely
And God knows your destiny
What your life will add up to / How you’ll live it / What you will turn out to be
Now / we’re talking about life’s our destiny here
And all that / God has you contained / encircled / encompassed
He’s got you hedged in / procured / by His love and care
That’s the thrust of verse 5
“You hem me in / behind and before and lay your hand upon me”
Now / Do I understand all this / “No / I don’t”
I don’t pretend to gave “got it” / I don’t “get it”
Neither did David / Look at verse 6
“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me / it is high / I cannot attain it”
But like David / I wouldn’t want to have it otherwise
I feel secure knowing that my life is ultimately not like grass
that pops up in the morning but buy midday fades away
- there is a purpose / God’s directs me / His hand is on me
Lets pick it up from verse 5
5 / You hem me in, behind and before / and lay your hand upon me
6 / Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 /Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 / If I go up to the heavens, you are there / if I make my bed in the depths
you are there.
9/ If I rise on the wings of the dawn / if I settle on the far side of the sea
10 / even there your hand will guide me / your right hand will hold me fast
11/ If I say “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me”
even the darkness will not be dark to you
the night will shine like the day / for darkness is as light to you”
God is present in everyplace / in the entire fullness of His Being
God / in all His fullness of his essence
without in any way diffused or distorted
infuses and permeates the universe and beyond it
And God is fully present in all places / No place is without God
But we must be careful we don’t confuse God’s identity with nature’s
by thinking that God is somehow identical to nature
But believing God is everywhere does not make us pantheists
We reject the pantheistic idea that God is bound to the universe
as the universe is bound to God / as Spinoza wrongly believed
We believe that God is immanent in every place
but this immanence is qualified by his transcendence
Yes He is present in everything but not bound by anything
He is both immanent and transcendent
Pantheism is the view that that believes that not only is God omnipresent
God is actually in everything
He is in the trees / rocks / the ocean
This is why some religions require their devotees to bow
to wooden gods / to the trees / wind / sea / and the mountains
and worshipping them as gods
Pantheists believe that God is part of His creation
That / is not the God of the Bible
We’re not pantheists / We’re theists
We don’t believe
that a finite creation could ever contain an infinite God
Remember soon as Solomon built the temple / he immediately confessed
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth?
Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain You
how much less this house which I have built?” 1 Kings 8:27
Solomon is not denying that God dwells upon the earth
He is affirming that God is not bound limited to any one place
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Nature is too thin a screen
the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through it everywhere!”
God is around us in creation but He is not part of creation
He transcends His creation and His creatures
He may be imminent / but supremely He is transcendent
As Dr. E.A. Maness says
“If the word 'God' were written upon every blowing leaf
embossed on every passing cloud/ engraved on every granite rock
the inductive evidence of God in the world
would be no stronger than it is”
William Newton-Clarke said:
“If God is not everywhere / He is not true God anywhere”
Hildebert of Lavardin / Archbishop of Tours (1056-1133) / wrote:
“God is over all things / under all things / outside all things
within, but not enclosed / without, but not excluded
above - but not raised up / below - but not depressed
Wholly above, presiding / Wholly beneath, sustaining
Wholly within, filling”
God transcends all spatial and geographical limitations
and yet in a paradoxical way He is present in every single part of the universe
with His whole being / at all times
God is a pure simple spirit / without material parts
In theological language / we say “God is incorporeal”
And because He is incorporeal / He is present / not in part but wholly
in every place / at one and the same time
I now stand here / on this spot
In four hour’s time / I will probably not be here but elsewhere
But God / because He is incorporeal / was here / is here / and will be here
all at the same time / and present in the whole of His entire being
Victor Shepherd calls this “the geometry of grace”
“If I ascend to heaven” / that UP
- that’s where God lives / where all is life and light and love
“If I make my bed in Sheol” / that’s DOWN
- that’s where dead people live / where all is dark and dismal
“If I take the wings of the morning”
- that a common Hebrew expression meaning the EAST
“If I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea”
- the sea symbolized many things in Israel
and here it symbolizes the WEST
since the Mediterranean Sea was always west of Palestine
“UP / DOWN / EAST / WEST / You are there”
James Irwin the astronaut / tells us / that eight out of ten / of those men
who have walked on the surface of the moon / are now believers
Many of them / having looked into the universe and back to planet earth
realised / that God exists and can be known
John Gillespie Magee, Jr. the young pilot of the Royal Canadian air Force
who was killed at age 19 / in a flying accident
wrote a poem about his early flying experience
Its called / High Flight / and I quote just a few lines
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed / and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds
Up / up the long / delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—
And / while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand / and touched the face of God”
And on his grave are inscribed the first and last lines of his poem
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
Put out my hand and touched the Face of God”
But let us not miss out on the beauty of verse 9
“Even if I rise on the wings of the morning
if I settle on the far side of the sea”
There is a beautiful short prayer / whose author remains unknown
It simply goes like that:
“Oh God / thy sea is so great / and my boat is so small”
The author is unknown / but this line is part of a traditional prayer
called the Breton Fisherman's Prayer
And it has been said that President J.F. Kennedy
had a plaque on his desk / with this prayer inscribed
Some you know that I love fishing
And I’ve always thought if I should ever own a boat
I’ll name it Wings of the Morning / from v.9
Because it will remind me that no matter how far I venture out to sea
to the vast unknown / God will be there with me
But what does David really mean “Even if I rise on the wings of the morning
if I settle on the far side of the sea”
The “wings of the morning” / What’s that?
This is a beautifully poetic expression / let me try to explain it this way
On the very first morning of this century / the 1st January 2000
I got up early to catch/what was to be the 1st sunrise of the new century
New Zealand being the first nation to see its first dawning
I was perched there on Massey Bridge / at 5 am
There were many people gathered there watcher/ photographers
and artists / waiting to paint the first flash of the century’s light
But you know what / the very first ray / when it came
shoot across the dark heavens with such speed
it immediately flashes across the farthest bounds
of the other side of the horizon / before you could say “rhubarbs”
What’s that! / Simply the speed of light!!
As it does / every single morning without exception
What made us think / that it would be anymore special
than what it does every morning since the dawn of time
David sees this flash of light shooting right across the sky
from one horizon to the other / in a wink of an eyes / and he imagines
this flash of the travel of light / as “the wings of the morning”
And he says / “If I could travel with the wings of the morning”
that is / with the speed of light
He says even if I could go with the speed of light
and reach to the farthest points of earth
- like out there to the uttermost parts of the sea / in a micro-second
he says / “Even there / Lord
You’ll be right there / waiting for my arrival
You’ll still beat me to it”
Then he says something very crucial in v. 10 / we must not miss
“Even there your hand will guide me / your right hand will hold me fast”
Hebrew people understand that the left hand
symbolizes the judgement of God
But the right hand symbolizes the mercy and strength of God
Isn’t that so wonderfully reassuring
What a place to be / held and supported by God’s right hand
- it is to be held securely / by the grip of mercy a grip that never lets go
If your eternal security depended on your grip on God
which one of us like Job could hold fast to the end
Our eternal security is not depended on our grip on God
but on His grip on us
Then David reminds us that it was God
Who knitted us together in our mother's womb
He says / “My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth
Your eyes saw my unformed body / vv.15,16
Some years back / there was an award-winning TV series Life Goes On
It featured a character / called Corky / stricken with Downs Syndrome
His facial features / were those of a person with Downs Syndrome
His speech patterns / were those of a person with Downs Syndrome
And yet over the many week that the series was screened
the radiance of his real inner person became visible and even inspiring
- that / is his beauty
And the audience comes to see and appreciate
a certain beauty in the sheer humanity of this man / Corky
Some of us don’t like the way we look
we feel our nose too big / eyes too small / hair too unmanageable
but / in a sense / we are already beautiful / for as David says / v 14
“I praise you / for I am fearfully and wonderfully made
Your works are wonderful / I know that full well”
v. 15 / “My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth
Your eyes saw my unformed body “
Two Attending Issues
First / If God is everywhere / where was He on September 11th 2001 NYC
The answer is paradoxically both simple / and complex
God was there / in the heart of those two towers / in the planes
In fact / pull it back a couple of years before that event
He was there when those terrorists began hatching their plot
when they enrolled and attended their aviation classes
when the examiners graded their exam papers and passed them
The terrorists could only plough those jetliners into the Trade Towers
because God had a purpose in it
You’ve got to believe Lam. 3:37
“Who can speak and let it happen / if the Lord has not decreed it”
and Amos 3:6 “Does disaster come to a city unless the LORD has done it?”
Sometimes when a grave tragedy strikes
like an earthquake / bombing / tsunami / people ask if God is present
We all live in grave uncertainly
More and more we see evidence of the reality of evil
Violent crimes can strike / if not you / someone close to you
Grief and sorrow could be your lot / a week from today
And people are more acutely conscious now / that they will not be spared
And to all the people who wonder if there is anything / anyone
who is able to save them
from the evil and tragedy and grief and sorrow of this world
we will have only a timid and wimpy answer
if we do not know our God as truly God
in all His might and power
But we can shout with a loud and resounding “Yes”
because we worship a powerful God
and they too can have this God / if they would bow before Him
To all who ask “Did God ordained the death of all these innocent people
who die in earthquakes / and tsunamis / and other violent deaths
we need not be afraid to affirm “Yes / the Lord took each of these people away”
Is this right? / God gives lives and He takes away lives
In fact He does this every day?
Before this day is over / about 150,000 people will die
That’s according to the bureau / World Vital Events Per Time Unit for 2008
of the average number of death’s per day in the world
- that’s 3,000 before this sermon is over
And most of them will die / not in ripe their old age
but rather young / through violent deaths / or struggle with illness
And whether they die of old age or result or heart attack / or a flooding
or suicide bombing / God decides for each one if her time has come
He decides when your heart-beat will stop
And in doing all this / God does no wrong
His righteousness / justice / wisdom / goodness and sovereignty
lies behind every death He brings about
He owes no one a reason for what He does / or why He does them
Now / if you remember that we all daily defy God
and deserve to die last year / and yet our hearts are pumping today
you’ll come away amazed / at the grace of God
So / in short God is present right there in the heart of September 11th
But the point is this / you do all your friends a great disservice
if whenever a tragedy happens / and women and children die by the hundreds
and your friends turn to you and asks if God was there
for you then to come up with some pathetic fearful answer
that tries to absolve and excuse God of His responsibility
I say you do them a great disservice / because he will walk away
never knowing the fear of the Lord and responding to the love of God
We’ve all got to do better in that area
This must be partly what Packer meant / when he said
people who know their God / have great boldness in God
There are no two ways about it / You can speak
confidently of your God / only when you know your God
Second / If God is everywhere present / will God be present in hell?
Most of us think that hell is appalling
precisely because of the absence of the presence of God
RC Sproul says / that “a breath of relief is usually heard
when someone declares / “Hell is a symbol for separation from God
To be separated from God for eternity
is no great threat to the impenitent person
The ungodly want nothing more than to be separated from God
Their problem in hell will not be separation from God
it will be the presence of God that will torment them
He is present in hell / not in grace and blessing / but in holiness and wrath
They will know Him as an all-consuming fire”
But the omnipresence of God means exactly that / He is present everywhere
Revelation 14:10 is totally crucial in the discussion
That verse tells us that the unsaved will “drink of the wine of God’s fury”
and they will “be tormented with burning sulphur
in the presence...of the Lamb”
The “Lamb” in the book of Revelation is a symbol for Christ
This tells us explicitly that the wicked will suffer eternally in hell
in the holy presence of Christ
Revelation 14:9, 10 is clear / Those who worship the beast
and receives his mark of the beast will drink of the wine of God’s fury
which has been poured full strength / into the cup of his wrath
He will be tormented with burning sulphur
in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb
The unrighteous will be tormented / in the presence of the holy angels
and in the presence of the Lamb
Hell is not the absence of God
Everything / including hell / owes its existence from God’s presence
Colossians 1:17 / “'in Him' all things hold together”
See also Hebrews 1:3
The terrible reality is that God is in hell to show His wrath
He is not there to bless
He is present there to punish
It is God who makes the fire that is not quenched
the worm that does not die.
As Wayne Grudem writes / “There is nowhere in the entire universe
on land or sea / in heaven or hell
where one can flee from God's presence”
The condemned would give anything
to have ten seconds of relief from the presence of the glory of God
Grudem writes / “The idea of God’s omnipresence
has sometimes troubled people who wonder how God can be present
for example / in hell
In fact / isn’t hell the opposite of God’s presence / or the absence of God?
[No] This difficulty can be resolved by realizing
that God is present in different ways in different places
or that God acts differently in different places in His creation
- Sometimes God is present to punish”
But I want to close by asking / how this knowledge
that God is everywhere present / and all-knowing
can help us in our daily living
First / Almost the very first response is this
If God is everywhere present / and knows all
then there is no hiding from God
and there isn’t one thing secretive in our heart / He does not know
I believe I am not wrong to say that virtually every single one of us here
has one or two secrets / tucked deep away in our heart
something nobody / no one in this whole wide world knows about
And yet David says / “Lord / You spread out our sins before You
Our secret sins / You see them all” / Psalm 90:8
That / is the first implication / there is no hiding from God
Secondly / If God is always everywhere present and all-knowing
then as Wesley said / we should “take care not to do the least thing
not to speak the least word / not to indulge the least thought
which you have reason to think would offend him”
If God everywhere present / then / whether you acknowledge it or not
you are living coram deo / “before the face of God” / every moment
It boils down to this / everything you do / think / say / watch / touch
you do them all in God’s presence
Quite natural / that
when your boss is gone for the day you “slack off” a little at work
when men are away from home on a business trip
they may watch / do stuff they would not normally do at home
no one will hear me raising my voice at my wife
no one will hear me screaming at my husband
no one will see me reaching out for the bottle
the shady deal I am cutting / the .....
They believe no one sees them
But God does / and we need to live coram deo
- living before an audience of One
Third / If God is always everywhere present and all-knowing
He knows your future
If God is everywhere present / then He is already present in the future
Some of you who are older / must quite often wonder
how much time God has for you
Those of you who are younger / must wonder
“Where will I be five years from now?
Will I still have the job I now hold? / Will I remain single?
Remember / “If I rise on the wings of the morning
if I settle on the far side of the sea / even there
your hand will guide me / your right hand will hold me fast”
If God is everywhere present / then He is already present in the future
Fourth / If God is always everywhere present and all-knowing
then if you have made Him your God / you / are in a safe place
You don’t have to be afraid
No matter what you’re going through God is by your side
Things in your life / may not be stacking up well / for you right now
you’re afraid / you feel empty and lonely / work is going custard
you don’t have a nourishing relationships / and the boss is insane
It doesn’t matter / you’re in a safe place
You may be going home this afternoon / to a very uncertain tomorrow
- something in you workplace / that’s not going right
- a huge relational crisis / a depression of some kind
- a dreaded lab report that’s coming in this week / some diagnosis
give yourself time to ponder over these words
- a worsening prognosis of an illness
- a reversal of your financial fortune
- a child walking away from God
Remember the brave words of David
“Even though I walk through the dark valley of the shadow of death
I will fear nothing / for you are with me” / Psalm 23
But when fear tries to overwhelm you / you need to ask yourself
“Am I going to trust that God is right here with me”
or are you going to disbelieve Him and cave in into your fear?
We can have great confidence knowing that no matter what situation
we may find ourselves in / God is present with us
“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil / for You are with me
Your rod and staff / they comfort me” / Psalms 23:4
And He said / “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest”
Exodus 33:14
“He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber
Behold / He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” Ps 121:3-4
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous!
Do not tremble or be dismayed
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” / Joshua 1:9
“Because He is at my right hand / I shall not be moved” / Psalms 16:8
Isaiah 43:2-3
“When you pass through the waters / I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you
When you walk through the fire / you will not be burned
the flames will not set you ablaze
For I am the LORD / your God / the Holy One of Israel
your Saviour
Benediction
“May the all-powerful / all-knowing, everywhere- present Lord be with you
May He go before you to show you the way
behind you to protect you / beside you to befriend you
above you to watch over you / and within you to give you peace”
- Lloyd Ogilvie
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